Stage: “Streep Tease” is a delightful and at times moving tribute to the magic of Meryl and her material

If you are a Meryl Streep fan, then you must see the brilliant Streep Tease which is being performed on Saturday nights all this month.

I went last Saturday and had the most terrific time. This evening of Meryl Streep Monologues is performed by an all-male cast at Bang, a West Hollywood theater and improv studio. The show had been selling out during its monthly performances last fall and the weekly performances seem to be just as popular with a complete sellout last night.

The show is a real tribute to the quality and the variety of roles the 16-time Oscar nominee has had throughout her unparalleled career.

The heart of this show is creator-producer Roy Cruz, a stand-up comedian who in the playbill writes:  “It’s fascinating to know how a line from a movie resonates with one person, especially with Meryl Streep movies. So this show is maybe finding out why we are fascinated with Streep and her movies. It’s maybe the writing, the character, the way she delivered the lines, etc. But we all agree she is a great actress.”

Cruz delivers those lines pretty well himself as he kicks things off brilliantly with his Miranda Priestly monologue from The Devil Wears Prada. It was the perfect way to get us into Meryl mood and to have a few big laughs. He captures Miranda’s imperiousness perfectly (“Oh do move at a glacial pace, you know how I love that.”) and is savvy enough to hold back his next line when the audience is still laughing at the last one.

Cruz then slips into the narrator role and hilariously introduces the seven monologues that careen from heavy drama (Silkwood, Bridges of Madison County, Out of Africa and Sophie’s Choice} to unintentional comedy (A Cry in the Dark, The River Wild) to full-out comedy (Death Becomes Her and Prada). He also does a few trivia questions with the audience and for answering one correctly (The name of Streep’s character in Kramer vs. Kramer was Joanna) I got a Meryl fan as a prize. I can use it to fan myself when the weather get warmer and do lines from Postcards From the Edge, the Streep film that I know ALL of the dialogue.

Postcards was originally part of this show but the actor who did it is no longer part of the cast so a hilarious scene from Death Becomes Her (performed by Ron Morehouse) replaced it. I haven’t seen the film in years and did not remember what an absolute monster Streep’s character of Madeline Ashton was.

Morehouse said he chose that role because it’s a role that allowed Meryl “to play against everything we’ve come to know about her. She’s vain, catty and downright bitchy! As Madeline, Meryl encapsulates the true Hollywood that has always been around her but one she has never bowed to.”

A real comic revelation is Drew Droege’s Lindy Chamberlain from A Cry in the Dark. His Aussie accent is spot-on and his delivery is a real high point of a consistently superb show. I think my favorite comic line was during Mike Rose’s Gail Hartman’s The River Wild when he said, as Gail: “Now listen here you little idiot!”

Taylor Negron was deeply moving as Sophie Zawistowski in a monologue from Sophie’s Choice so intense you could hear a pin drop. Also pulling off a dramatic role with great skill was  Trent Walker doing Meryl’s doomed title character in a scene from Silkwood.

Steve Hasley brought real depth – and a fine Italian accent – to his performance as Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County. The monologue reminds us of why this Iowa housewife from Italy decided to stay with a husband, a decent man who she did not love, instead of running off with the dashing photographer who came into town and turned her world upside down.

“I find Francesca’s struggle between the choices we have made in our lives and the choices we want to make to be universal and something that resonates within my own life,” Hasley writes in the playbill.

Probably the best-known actor in the cast is David Dean Bottrell who had a recurring role as the psychotic Lincoln Meyer ABC’s on Boston Legal. He chose the role of Karen Blixen from Out of Africa because of his love of Danish accents. With a few other cast members helping out in supporting roles and others helping to simulate an airplance, Bottrell turns the whole thing into a hilarious tour-de-force and actually manages to act out the entire plot on about six minutes.

The cast gets together for a wonderful finale from Mamma Mia which they perform with impeccable choreography and plenty of joy and it just leaves the audience wanting more.

I can see so many other possibilities including Doubt, Julie & Julia, Heartburn, She-Devil, and Adaptation. The possiblities are endless!

I’m not sure if there are any tickets left for the remaining shows this month but if so, I suggest snapping them up right away.

Here is a LINK to the theater’s website.